Arrival in New Zealand and the North

After a relaxing day in Singapore, which we mainly spent eating, we continued towards Auckland in the early evening.

The flight was pleasant, and after 10 hours, we arrived in Auckland. From the airport, we took a bus to the campervan rental. There were quite a few people there, so it took 2 hours until we could finally settle into our 'home' for the next 6 weeks.
Since we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast on the plane and it was already 2 o'clock, we quickly dropped off our luggage in the car and drove to the nearest store. After stocking up on food for the first few days (and grabbing a quick bite to eat), we headed north.

Since I was pretty tired and had never driven on the left side of the road before, Silvan had to drive the route alone. After 2 hours, we found a beautiful campsite right by the sea. After a swim in the ocean, we finally had spaghetti for dinner after 4 weeks of rice.

The next day, we continued along the west coast towards the north. In the 'Waipoua Forest', we took a walk to see the giant Kauri trees. The forest was very beautiful, and the size of the trees was impressive. Afterwards, we went to a small beach where we had a picnic. Since we were still used to the Laotian winter sun, having lunch in the sun without sunscreen was a bit too much for Silvan's skin. For the night, we decided to camp at 90 Mile Beach. We parked our van behind a small sand dune.

After a very peaceful night, we (covered in sunscreen) set off for Cape Reinga, the northernmost point. Along the way, we drove to a large sand dune and climbed up. At the cape, we took a short hike to a secluded bay, and then we drove back to the south.
The next day, we went to the Bay of Islands. There, we booked a boat trip for the afternoon to visit the islands in the bay. We spent the waiting time on Russell with a walk up Flagstaff Hill, which offered a great view of the islands. The boat took us through the bay, passing by many islands, to the 'Hole in the Rock', a famous rock formation with a hole that you can drive through. On one of the largest islands in the bay, we were able to go ashore, and we hiked up to a viewpoint again.